THE Savo and Russell Islands People’s Empowerment Network (SRIPEN) was officially launched on Saturday November 10, 2018 at Pokilo Village, Savo Island.

SRIPEN Executive team, representative of the Savo House of Chiefs, community elders, leaders of Savo 13 communities and general community members attended the event and witnessed the official launching. The occasion recorded more than 100 people.

At the presentation of SRIPEN, the patron George Saemane who is one of the core founders shared the long journey and many attempts to bring the people of Savo together.

“We call ourselves different names over the last 20 years but that does not matter now, this year for the first time, we were able to bring other Savo Islanders and our wantoks from the Russell Islands under the SRIPEN Banner.”

In May 2018, SRIPEN has adopted its Constitution, registered the group as a charitable entity, called a general meeting and elected its executive members in October and now successfully launched the network.

The huge part of SRIPEN mandate is to; be a social movement that will solicit professional advice from international and national professionals in enhancing village focused development on Savo and Russell Islands; to train, develop and prepare Savo and Russell Island leaders for effective leadership and service; to solicit financial and other assistance from international, internal donors for village development purposes, to provide researched advice to Savo and Russell Island cultural, church and political leaders to made educated decisions; to as much as possible facilitate village development from national funding.

At the formal launching, Fr Ishmael Taisi did the ordination blessing of SRIPEN followed by the proclamation launching statement made by the president of SRIPEN, George Pego.

“Today on the day of Saturday, November 10, 2018, I pronounce the launching of, Savo and Russell Islands people’s empowerment network (SRIPEN),” Mr Pego declares.

As the president, Pego further alludes he is more than excited on the successive mile stones the network has achieved in this year alone.

“We have adopted our constitution, have a fully function board members and with the launching of SRIPEN, I am enthusiastically looking forward for all the work the group will be doing for the common good of Savo and Russells people, he stated.

“Part of the vision for SRIPEN is to somehow work in close collaboration with the Member of Parliament for Savo & Russells constituency. This partnership will be taken seriously to ensure issues within constituency are addressed and sprout of developments materialised 2019 onwards,” Pego added.

In his closing remarks he encourage everyone to work together to achieve the aspiration of SRIPEN.

The SRIPEN executive is planning to hold two other launchings, one in Russell Island and another in Honiara in 2019.

–SRIPEN Media

THE Savo and Russell Islands People’s Empowerment Network (SRIPEN) has successfully held a Leaders Summit in Pokilo Village, Savo Island on November 10, 2018 with the theme: “Together We Can Do More” Dusaka in Savo dialect and Me Sangine in Russells language.

This is a historic event in Savo Island where indigenous Savoans with various expertise came together under the banner of SRIPEN to host a leaders summit, coincides with the official launching of the network, Savo and Russell Islands Peoples Empowerment Network (SRIPEN).

Present at the meeting were representative from Savo House of Chiefs, leaders from 13 communities within Savo Island, church leaders, teachers, youth and women representatives and community elders. The meeting recorded more than 100 participants.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Chief John William Jeremiah a representative from the Savo House of Chiefs, welcomes SRIPEN team to the shores of Savo and said it is indeed an honour to receive such an event.

“Truly an open door opportunity for islanders to embrace and urge everyone who is present to make good use of this opportunity and network,” he added.

George Pego, the president of SRIPEN, in his introductory speech informs the participants that, “SRIPEN is here to inform and educate us on key issues affecting us, how we should exercise our leadership roles effectively and make conformed decisions to help communities and more importantly what we can do together to achieve the future we want for us, our children and our grandchildren.”

The summit is special and goes down in history especially because it is facilitated by indigenous who are senior government officials and prominent leaders with expertise from different fields with the strong support by a pool of resource personnel who voluntarily commit their time and resources in reaching out to the grassroot.

Key speakers during the summit were, George Pego Director of Nursing MHMS, who presented on People Centred Development. George Saemane, an educationist and the current principal of Florence Young Christian School who introduced SRIPEN and raise awareness on cultural leadership perspective. Marisa Pepa Galo, Director Parliament Education Unit, Solomon Islands National Parliament presented on “Know your Parliament” theme, followed by Francisca Tamu, CEO Acting Media Association of Solomon Islands who advocated briefly on the election phase “omission and objection” and “election offences” according to the Electoral Act. Jacob Ghala, Director Industrial Development Divison was the final speaker who did a session on small business opportunities for rural people through the government and other financial institution.

Overall it has been an informative session with lots of questions and comments raised according to Richard Ben Duva a host organiser. “All participants stayed all through the program since the beginning of the session until the end, an indication that people are so much interested in the information been disseminated today,” he stated.

Many participants have expressed their gratitude towards SRIPEN for the initiative they have taken.

“The sessions were very educational and enlightening however it could be more impactful if sessions continued for two days, according to Tom Tango a participant. Similar sentiments were shared by others.

SRIPEN President on behalf of the travelling team thanked all individual members who have generously supported in one way or another. Through this support we were able to successfully accomplish the purpose of the trip on the shores of Savo Island.

–SRIPEN Media